McDonald's has a McProblem that's not getting better
McDonald's has a McProblem that's not getting better.
That's a sports cliché often attributed to Bill Parcells, but it's often used to discuss why talent alone isn't how we grade players. Sure, Joel Embiid has massive talent, but when he has missed more games (495) than he has played (490), according to ClutchPoints , his lack of availability overshadows his tremendous ability.
When people visit a fast-food chain, they expect their favorite menu items to be available. If McDonald's regularly ran out of fries, KFC couldn't keep fried chicken in stock, and Chipotle ran short of guacamole frequently, consumers would get mad — and they might stop visiting.
"More than four-in-five (82%) consumers would try a competitor if their go-to is frequently out of stock," according to a new survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers from DOSS . "Nearly two-thirds (62%) have already switched brands because of a stockout, while a quarter (25%) of consumers say stockouts damage their trust in a brand."
It's summer, National Ice Cream Day (July 19), an unofficial holiday, is approaching, and celebrating with a McFlurry should be easy. The only problem is that the machines that make those frozen treats have a history of being broken.
That's a problem that has been known for decades, which inspired a website, McBroken , that lets people check their local McDonald's before leaving the house. At 11:31 a.m. in Port Saint Lucie, Fla., the website actually showed that 19.04% of all of the chain's McFlurry machines are down worldwide.
Although that's a higher percentage than is normally down, new data show the number of McDonald's McFlurry machines not operating on a regular basis is pretty significant.
"We dug into nearly six years of reported machine status across 492 cities and all 50 states (plus D.C.) to find where getting your cone is a safe bet and where it's a real long shot," reported Action Network .
"Nationally, the McDonald's ice cream machine was reported down about 10.4% of the time," according to the data.
Action Network shared some other findings from its research:
Cleveland, Tennessee , is the broken-machine capital of America, with implied odds of a downed machine at 46.9%, nearly a coin flip on whether you're getting ice cream at all.
Albany, Georgia (42.4%) and Gulfport, Mississippi (39.7%) round out the three unluckiest cities in the country.
On the other end, Ashland, Kentucky , is soft-serve heaven: The machine was down just 2.1% of the time, the most reliable city in the study.
Mississippi is the worst state overall ( 34.0% implied odds of a broken machine), followed by Oklahoma (32.4%) , and Alaska (30.5%) .
Minnesota (11.5%) and Wisconsin (12.7%) have the best statewide odds in the country.
McDonald's tried to explain why its ice cream machines are down so often on its technical blog.
" McDonald's ice cream machines aren't usually 'broken,' they're often in the middle of a mandatory four-hour heat treat cycle (HTC), which ensures food safety. The reality is more technical than tragic," the company shared in a March 26 post .
"If mix levels are too high or too low, the cycle fails, putting the machine into a standby or error state. Without clear alerts or automation, crew members may default to just saying, 'The ice cream machine is broken,'" the company shared.
McDonald's does have a plan to fix this, which has reached the pilot stage.
